Jats up the ante, stir to
intensify
Hisar, March 9
Even as DGP Ranjiv Dalal and Deputy Commissioner Amit Aggarwal appealed to the pro-reservation Jat protesters to cremate the body of the youth who had died in a clash with the police on Monday, the protesters today decided to intensify their agitation following government’s refusal to release all their arrested leaders.

Uneasy calm at Ground Zero
Fatehabad, March 9
An uneasy calm prevails at Parta village of Fatehabad after yesterday’s clashes between the police and Jat agitators.

House resolution against Chautala Jr
Chandigarh, March 9
The unrest over the Jat reservation in Haryana today spilled into the Haryana Assembly again as the House witnessed acrimonious scenes. While 17 MLAs of the Opposition were named for “disrupting” the proceedings, the House passed a unanimous resolution against INLD MLA Ajay Singh Chautala for “entering into a political conspiracy” to divide the social fabric of the
state as the INLD staged a walkout.

Quit, Chautala tells Hooda
Sirsa, March 9
INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala today held the Hooda government responsible for the present imbroglio over the Jat reservation and said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was trapped in a self-woven web.

Budget Session
House passes 16 Bills
Chandigarh, March 9
Decks have been cleared for setting up a national law university in the state with the passage of the National Law University Haryana Bill, 2012, along with 15 other Bills by the Assembly on the concluding day of Budget session today.

Decision on panel against Chautalas deferred
Chandigarh, March 9
Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma today deferred his decision on the issue whether a House committee could go into the issue of transfer of public assets to various trusts floated by the family of Leader of the Opposition Om Prakash Chautala in view of the ongoing CBI cases against him and his two sons, to the next session.

Jats in no mood to relent
Hisar, March 9
The chances of an early end to the Jat agitation in the district receded further this evening after the leaders of the protesters at Ramayan village, near here, spurned an offer by the khap panchayat to mediate with the government.

Four killed in road mishaps
Fatehabad, March 9
Two persons were killed and two others were seriously injured when their car rammed into a truck near Dariyapur village today.

Hisar, March 9
Even as DGP Ranjiv Dalal and Deputy Commissioner Amit Aggarwal appealed to the pro-reservation Jat protesters to cremate the body of the youth who had died in a clash with the police on Monday, the protesters today decided to intensify their agitation following government’s refusal to release all their arrested leaders.

Suresh Koth, a senior Jat leader, said there was no question of cremating the body before the release of all the persons arrested in connection with the ongoing agitation.

He said since the government had not released the arrested men by noon today, it had been decided to intensify the stir by blocking rail and road traffic “at all possible places” in the state.

Koth said the protesters would not hold any talks with the government on any issue till the arrested persons were released.

Over 5,000 protesters gathered at the railway track in Ramayan village today. They removed the stone metal from the tracks and spread the pebbles on the national highway to render it unusable.

The protesters have also removed fish plates from the railway track to rule out the possibility of resumption of rail services forcibly.

The police has registered a case of murder against officers and jawans of Rapid Action Force on the complaint of Karamvir Singh , uncle of Sandeep, who died in the clash with the security forces on Monday.

Fatehabad, March 9
An uneasy calm prevails at Parta village of Fatehabad after yesterday’s clashes between the police and Jat agitators.

The police has registered criminal cases against over 125 villagers and arrested 10 of them for rioting. While the authorities claim that at least six policemen have received injuries due to stone pelting by the protesters, the villagers alleged the police beat them by dragging them out of their houses.

Parta is located about 4 km of Gajuwala village that witnessed clash between the police and Jats on March 6.

Since then the paramilitary forces have been camping near this village. The incident occurred when the villagers blocked the Parta-Gajuwala road, the route used by the district authorities to reach the railway track.

The villagers allegedly threw stones at a police team, inviting retaliation. Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik said the injured include DIG (Crime) Paramjit Singh Ahlawat, two DSPs — Shiv Charan and Sunil Dalal. An official note quoting SP Satinder Kumar Gupta said the police swung into action after Tohana Sadar SHO was injured in the attack. “The police entered the houses by smashing doors and beat up villagers mercilessly,” alleged Vjiay Singh, an agitator from Gajuwala.

The police, meanwhile, said villagers Rai Sahib, Sita Ram, Krishan, Subhash, Hawa Singh, Sanjay, Mohinder, Rajesh, Pala Ram and Kailash, all from Parta and Baijalpur villages, have been arrested under Sections 148, 149, 332, 353, 186 and 307 of the IPC and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.

Chandigarh, March 9
The unrest over the Jat reservation in Haryana today spilled into the Haryana Assembly again as the House witnessed acrimonious scenes. While 17 MLAs of the Opposition were named for “disrupting” the proceedings, the House passed a unanimous resolution against INLD MLA Ajay Singh Chautala for “entering into a political conspiracy” to divide the social fabric of the
state as the INLD staged a walkout.

Also, probably for the first time, the House
went over a part of today’s recording of the proceedings to ascertain objectionable words used by Chautala for Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, for which he subsequently apologised.

As expected, the House virtually “exploded” over the on-going Jat agitation after the question hour as the treasury benches and the Opposition indulged in a slanging match while the Speaker looked on for nearly 15 minutes.

With nothing audible, the Speaker first named BJP’s Anil Vij and turned the heat on INLD legislators who came to his “rescue.” Marshals were called in to escort Vij out even as the BJP staged a walkout.

As Sharma threatened to name everybody who stopped the marshals
from removing Vij, INLD’s Abhey Chautala was the first to go for “talking back” at the
chair and 14 other INLD MLAs and one SAD MLA, too, were named for the ensuing ruckus.

For a change, the Congress “attack” on the Opposition, too, seemed coordinated as party MLAs rose to defend the government rather than leaving the job to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Sirsa, March 9
INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala today held the Hooda government responsible for the present imbroglio over the Jat reservation and said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was trapped in a self-woven web.

Demanding Hooda’s resignation on this issue, Chautala alleged that the Chief Minister had been misleading Jats on the quota issue from the very beginning for his own political ends and now the things had gone out of his government’s hands.

Chandigarh, March 9
Decks have been cleared for setting up a national law university in the state with the passage of the National Law University Haryana Bill, 2012, along with 15 other Bills by the Assembly on the concluding day of Budget session today.

A minimum of 25 per cent seats in the university would be reserved for state students. One-fifth of the total seats reserved for Haryana domicile would be reserved for the wards of land owners whose land was acquired for Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonepat.

The Haryana Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2012, has been passed for improving quality. In view of the SC judgement in the Prof Yashpal versus State of Chhattisgarh case, the provisions such as study centres, off campus and off-shore campus have been omitted. The Bill also sought to set up Baba Mast Nath University in Rohtak, MVN University in Palwal and Ansal University in Gurgaon. The Maharshi Dayanand University (Amendment) Bill, 2012, the Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya Khanpur Kalan (Amendment) Bill, 2012, the Kurukshetra University (Amendment) Bill, 2012, and Chaudhary Devi Lal University Sirsa (Amendment) Bill, 2012, seek to re-designate university teachers as Assistant Professors and Associate Professors.

The Punjab Labour Welfare Fund (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2012, enhances subscription to the welfare fund from Rs 5 to Rs 10. The Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Haryana Amendment Bill, 2012, vests District Development and Panchayat Officers and Deputy Chief Executive Officers of Zila Parishads with powers of Assistant Collector to ensure timely disposal of eviction proceedings of shamlat land.

The other Bills passed by the House were the Haryana Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2012, the Haryana Murrah Buffalo and other Milch Animal Breed (Preservation and Development of Animal Husbandry and Dairying Development Sector) Amendment Bill, 2012, the Haryana Private Health Sciences Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Fee and Maintenance of Educational Standards) Bill, 2012, and the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2012.

Chandigarh, March 9
Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma today deferred his decision on the issue whether a House committee could go into the issue of transfer of public assets to various trusts floated by the family of Leader of the Opposition Om Prakash Chautala in view of the ongoing CBI cases against him and his two sons, to the next session.

The issue was raised by Deputy Leader of the INLD Legislature Party Sher Singh Badshami earlier. He had said no House committee could go in to the issues, which were sub judice and therefore, he wanted, that the House committee set up during the last session should be disbanded. Sharma had agreed that he would take the decision on Badshami’s plea after hearing all sides in the House. Hence, a debate was scheduled for today.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said the public assets were transferred to the family trusts of the Chautalas by the state Cabinet for no consideration when Om Prakash was the CM. Hence, there was a direct conflict of interests. He was no wrong if a House committee went into the issue at the same time when a CBI court was hearing allegations of disproportionate assets and illegal recruitment of JBT teachers against the Chautalas.

On the other hand, quoting from a book written by Kaul and Shakdhar and various rulings by the Haryana Speakers in the past, Badshami said anything sub judice could not be discussed in the House.

Surjewala said since the judgements being quoted by Badshami were not readily available for reference, the issue should be deferred till next session. The Speaker accepted the suggestion.

Hisar, March 9
The chances of an early end to the Jat agitation in the district receded further this evening after the leaders of the protesters at Ramayan village, near here, spurned an offer by the khap panchayat to mediate with the government.

Four leaders of the panchayats, including Inder Singh Hooda and Partap Singh Dahiya, met the protesters at the railway track and informed them that they would try to secure release of the arrested persons to pave the way for cremation of the body of Sandeep, who had died in the clash with the police on Monday.

However, the protesters reportedly told them that all the decisions would be taken by the "samaj" and nobody else. A 15-member team of khap leaders later arrived in the city to meet the arrested leaders in the Central Jail here.

Fatehabad, March 9
Two persons were killed and two others were seriously injured when their car rammed into a truck near Dariyapur village today.

The deceased have been identified as Gopal Kalra of Sirsa and Rajender Jagga
of Dabwali.

In another incident, two youths lost their lives when two motorcycles collided head on near Panjuana village in Sirsa district this afternoon. Mohinder and Raman, riding on a motorcycle died due to head injuries after the accident. — TNS